Bal Offensive POY, Stocks Coach of the Year as Storm Fill All-ECAC Squad

CENTERVILLE, MASS. – Highlighted by two special awards, the Lake Erie College men's lacrosse team placed seven members on the 2013 Eastern College Athletic Conference Division II Lacrosse all-conference team, selected by a vote of the league coaches and announced by interim commissioner Steve Bamford Wednesday (May 1).

Leading the way were senior attacker Keegan Bal (Coquitlam, B.C./Centennial Secondary), who was named Offensive Player of the Year, and head coach Greg Stocks who was recognized by his peers as Coach of the Year.

Bal finished the regular season with 43 goals and 31 assists for a single season school-record 74 points. He picked up 23 goals and 19 assists in conference play and led the league in points and was third in goal scoring. Bal was named Offensive Player of the Week three times during the season and was third in points scored in NCAA Division II.

As the Offensive Player of the Year, Bal also landed a spot on the All-ECAC First Team. He was joined by sophomore midfielder Reagan Harding (Saskatoon, Sask./Bishop Jones Mahoney) and sophomore defender Justin Goodwin (New Westminster, B.C./New Westminster) on the first team. Harding was third on the Storm in scoring with 27 goals and 34 points. He also won 63% of his faceoff attempts. Goodwin, a two-time ECAC Defensive Play of the Week during the season, led the team and was fourth in the league with 79 groundballs and 22 caused turnovers.

The nation's leading scorer, junior attacker Trevor Tarte (Amherstburg, Ont./Kiski Prep), was named to the All-ECAC Second Team along with senior midfielder Josh Becker (Salamanca, N.Y./Salamanca) and senior specialist Bill Desiderio (Lancaster, N.Y./Iroquois). Tarte scored 57 goals during the regular season, averaging an NCAA-best 4.07 per game, and had 11 games with three or more goals this season. Becker scored 13 goals and finished second on the team with 18 assists for 31 total points while Desiderio was one of the league and country's best with a 58.5% face-off winning percentage (179-306). He also picked up 76 groundballs and was the ECAC Specialist of the Week during the last week of the regular season.

Freshman goalie Tom Lipomi (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) earned a spot on the All-Rookie Team after posting a 7.29 goals against average and 100 saves in his debut season.

Stocks led the Storm to the best season in school history as Lake Erie finished with an 11-3 overall record, 5-2 conference mark and a top-10 national ranking. LEC was either ranked or received votes in every USILA Coaches' Poll during the season, including three straight weeks ranked in the top 12. Statistically, Lake Erie had the second-best scoring offense (15.5 goals/game) and sixth-best scoring defense (7.14) in all of NCAA Division II.

The Storm finished third in the ECAC during the regular season and face second-seeded Seton Hill University in the conference tournament semifinals Friday, May 5, at 2 p.m. in Erie, Pa.